‘Border Wars’ shows White House divide
Esther J. Cepeda says the book is depressing, but there’s hope in that there are officials who buck Trump’s barbarous immigration policy.
CHICAGO — Steel yourself — the book “Border Wars: Inside Trump’s Assault on Immigration” is infuriating, heart-wrenching reading.
New York Times reporters Julie Hirschfeld Davis and Michael D. Shear set up their book’s narrative by cataloging the administration’s disjointed efforts to fulfill contradictory campaign promises. President Trump wants to make a “deal” on immigration but can’t because of the nativist desires of his closest advisers and his base for tougher immigration restrictions and enforcement.
According to the authors, Trump “feels” for the so-called Dreamers — whom his handlers insisted he re-brand as “DACA recipients” because the beneficiaries of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Act aren’t the only people in America who have dreams of thriving in this country. But he can’t do anything (despite on-again, offagain promises to “take care” of them) because his base recoils at any sign of mercy for the young, unlawfully present immigrants.
And on and on. If you’ve been following the issue, you know the story.
But read “Border Wars” to learn how the Obama administration inadvertently set the stage for the Trump White House to inflict maximum pain on immigrants. Or to understand just how cruel (not to mention factually inaccurate, ignorant, petty and vain) Trump’s general approach to policy setting is.
Or to learn how racist Trump’s top advisers on immigration really are. (Chief aide Stephen Miller’s recently leaked emails show that the basis for much of his immigration policy “expertise” comes from white supremacist and conspiracy theorist websites.)
What I took away from the otherwise depressing book is that there were, are — and hopefully will continue to be — knowledgeable, thoughtful people in top government positions who have dedicated their lives to public service and do their all to keep Trump from making barbarous policy decisions.
According to “Border Wars,” Trump demanded that his staff look into building a shock-inducing electrified border wall comprised of pointed, flagpole-like spikes — sharp enough to pierce human flesh in an instant. Trump wanted the spikes painted black so they’d get hot in the desert sun and burn anyone who got to the top of the wall.
And he asked for the Army Corps of Engineers to estimate the cost to dig a trench around the wall, confounding advisers. According to the authors, “Some of the president’s proposals were so outlandish that aides could not even tell whether he was serious.”
But experts and program officers put the brakes on the zanier ideas and confronted Trump and his most demanding aides with uncomfortable truths.
The book recounts one memorable meeting between Miller and longtime staffers. “’The president believes refugees cost too much,’ Miller declared as he looked around the room at White House aides and career officials who had built their professional lives around resettling persecuted people in the United States. It came as no surprise to anyone seated around the table that Trump was taking aim at refugees,” the authors wrote in a chapter laden with examples of longtime analysts, policy experts and program directors who insisted that the data said the opposite.
Even Trump’s own people couldn’t bear the ways in which the administration was trying to vilify immigrants and portray them as expensive and dangerous using out-andout misinformation.
At one point, Jennifer Arangio, a senior director at the National Security Council with top-secret clearance, reportedly pushed back at Trump’s toadies.
“Yeah, I did used to think that the refugee program was vulnerable to terrorist infiltration,” Arangio said, according to the authors. “But then I got here and made it my business to learn the facts about the program, and now I know that refugees are the most vetted category of any immigrant. You’d be crazy to come if you were a terrorist. This is the last way you would try to get into this country.”
Like other Trump supporters in the administration, Arangio, who worked on his presidential election campaign, refused to distort facts, pretend they didn’t exist or actively try to bury them. Other Republicans and Democrats of conscience stood up to a tyrannical president and his pugnacious inner circle in defense of truth, accuracy and fairness.
Sure, oftentimes they were steamrolled. But they tried. And that represents a fragment of hope that there are quiet civil servant heroes who are advocating and sometimes actually fighting for immigrants and refugees, even as the president tries to keep them out of our once-welcoming land.